The sharing of video content on websites has developed into a worldwide phenomenon, supported by dozens of websites. On average, over 10,000 videos are posted every day, and this number is increasing as the tools and opportunities for capturing video become easy to use and more widespread. Shared video content provides good opportunities to present advertising material to viewers along with the requested video content. However, some mechanisms for delivering advertising with shared video have been relatively ineffective, while others are perceived by users as being objectionable.
People who use video sharing services have a wide range of motivations for using those services. Some are interested in specific information in the shared content, while others are just browsing in a leisurely manner through the content. Advertising that appears in conjunction with the video content, in order to be effective as well as maintain a satisfactory experience for the user, needs to be presented in a manner that takes these widely varying user characteristics into account.
Video content is now delivered to users via a wide range of technologies, each of which has established mechanisms for delivering advertising content. Movies commercially released in DVD format, for example, generally come with trailers for other movies from the same production company. These trailers are often presented automatically when the user seeks to watch the primary program; sometimes it is difficult if not impossible for a user to avoid watching the advertising content. Many users have expressed dismay at the requirement to sit through undesired advertisements, particularly after they have already paid a substantial amount to buy the DVD. Furthermore, the advertising content is often out of date when the DVD is watched some period of time after it is first released. The overall user satisfaction with this sort of advertising has been mixed.
More recently, major television networks have made available some of their programming on their websites. The players that they use typically require a viewer to watch advertising content before, during or after the requested programming. Initial reactions from such websites have also been mixed.
There remains a need for a flexible interface that allows requested video content and advertising to be presented in a manner that is both satisfying to the viewer and effective for advertisers.